Pre-match briefing: Everton v Chelsea - part one

The Blues head to Merseyside aiming to maintain a 100 per cent record going in to the international break.

Club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton look at the prospects…

TALKING POINTS

Six points stashed, five goals scored and just one conceded from the opening two matches is a solid start but only three times since the back-to-back title season of 2005/06 have Chelsea opened a season with three straight league wins: 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2012/13.

This is our first 17.30 kick-off of the campaign. Last season we faced nine starts around this time, including one at 17.15. Five of them ended in defeat (one at home – Sunderland – and four away) and four in victory. One of those losses was the Everton game.

Goodison Park has been a difficult venue throughout that period. Our narrow 0-1 defeat in September 2013 was Everton’s fourth victory in five league meetings on Merseyside and the first three point haul of Roberto Martinez’s tenure.

Since the first two games were against promoted sides this is the first match to offer a chance of improving the points tally from corresponding fixtures last season. Everton played last week's defeated visitors to the Bridge, Leicester City, on the opening day. Twice they led but succumbed to an equalising goal from the hosts and it ended 2-2.

Chelsea are seeking a fifth successive away win in the Barclays Premier League.

The Londoners are in a rich vein of form on the road, the setback at Crystal Palace being the last occasion on which any points were dropped – the best run since winter 2013/13. Five on the spin has not been achieved since the seven wins of April-September 2009.

Everton have conceded eight goals at home over their previous four league games, two of which were lost and one drawn.

Chelsea’s name coming out of the bowl first on Wednesday means we have been drawn at home in the League Cup for the first time since the minor epic against Man United of Hallowe’en night 2012 that finished 5-4 after extra time. (The Swansea semi-final at the Bridge in January 2013 was a two-legged tie.)

Our opening round Champions League battle lines were drawn a day later on Thursday. Chelsea will have to overcome two of Schalke, Sporting and Maribor to progress from Group G.

The German side are familiar opponents, beaten home and away in last season’s competition. We have never played a competitive game against Sporting, from Jose Mourinho’s homeland of Portugal, nor the 12-times Slovenian champions, slayers of Celtic in the play-off round. Maribor currently lie fourth, Sporting seventh and Schalke 14th in the early stages of their respective leagues.

John Terry and his team-mates will wear black armbands this weekend as a mark of respect for a remarkable Blues supporter. No football club had a greater friend than Chelsea did in Richard, Lord Attenborough, who died last Sunday aged 90. Over seven decades he projected an unstintingly positive image of the club as a fan, director and life president.

His integrity and humanitarianism not only helped see off developers threatening to close Stamford Bridge in the 1980s, but ensured facilities for disabled spectators were improved once the battle had been won. He was a touchstone for the soul and heritage of Chelsea FC and we will miss him greatly.

Looking at other fixtures, Man City have won four of their last six home league games against Stoke by the same scoreline: 3-0.

Ninth-placed Liverpool travel to leaders Tottenham, a team they put nine past without reply (five at White Hart Lane) last campaign.

On their last visit to Leicester in December 2003 Arsenal had Ashley Cole red carded but clung on for a 1-1 draw.

Barclays Premier League fixtures

Saturday

Burnley v Manchester United 12.45pm - BT Sport

Manchester City v Stoke 3pm

Newcastle v Crystal Palace 3pm

QPR v Sunderland 3pm

Swansea v West Brom 3pm

West Ham v Southampton 3pm

Everton v Chelsea 5.30pm - Sky Sports

Sunday

Aston Villa v Hull 1.30pm

Tottenham v Liverpool 1.30pm - Sky Sports

Leicester v Arsenal 4pm - Sky Sports

Barclays Premier League top 10

Pos

Team

P

GD

Pts

1

Arsenal

0

0

0

2

Bournemouth

0

0

0

3

Brighton

0

0

0

4

Burnley

0

0

0

5

Chelsea

0

0

0

6

Crystal Palace

0

0

0

7

Everton

0

0

0

8

Huddersfield Town

0

0

0

9

Leicester City

0

0

0

10

Liverpool

0

0

0

Last Updated: 08:00, Wed 02 Aug

CHELSEA BY NUMBERS

Chelsea have won our last four Barclays Premier League games on the road - at Swansea, Liverpool, Cardiff and Burnley. Our last away defeat was at Selhurst Park against Palace in March.

The Blues had 27 shots against Leicester (10 on target, nine off target and eight blocked) eight more than any other side has managed so far this season.

Chelsea have conceded just nine league goals throughout 2014, fewer than any other ever-present Premier League side.

Chelsea have kept two clean sheets in our last eight Premier League away games.